Liu Qingshan is the daughter of Liu the Philanthropist, a wealthy landowner. She's short, very thin, and plain-looking.
She doesn't stand out at all.
When she was a little girl, her cousin got married and many relatives came to the house. One of them pinched her cheek and said she would have a hard time in the future, because a girl who looked like that would find it difficult to marry.
Her mother stood behind her, her face darkening at once. Liu Qingshan didn't understand why her mother later made her practice needlework, hitting her palm when she couldn't do it right.
She understood eventually, but she still couldn't make sense of her mother's actions.
She went to buy rouge, and the rouge seller extolled the virtues of the products in her hands. Liu Qingshan thought women were much like the rouge the seller had: the beautiful ones were in high demand, and the seller could get a good price for them.
In her mother's eyes, she probably belonged to the kind that sat unsold in the warehouse.
Unsold? She gestured at the rouge in her hand. Wasn't that a good thing?
Why did she have to sell herself? Couldn't she be the buyer instead?
.
Liu Qingshan had two close friends from respectable families. They would get together to drink tea, watch plays, and discuss newly purchased rouge and powder.
That was perfectly normal, but sometimes they would talk about what they wanted in a future husband.
With her cheeks flushed, one young woman said she had to find a scholar, preferably one who was slim and fair, spoke gently, and was even better if he was handsome.
Liu Qingshan blinked and asked, "Then why don't you marry your friend?"
She pointed to the other girl. "Look, she fits everything you just described. Why don't you two get married today and consummate your marriage tonight?"
The young woman, who had just been blushing with romantic thoughts, grew angry and smacked Liu Qingshan with her round fan, calling her a weirdo.
,
There were many other things she didn't understand. At last, she reached the age to marry, and a deep furrow appeared between her mother's brows. Her mother tried her hardest to arrange meetings between her and every eligible young man.
The men she found were naturally all good prospects. Some were sons or nephews of relatives, and some were the younger sons of officials. They were either wealthy or had made something of themselves.
She didn't care which one she ended up with. Her life wouldn't be bad either way. The men were like the rows of rouge in the seller's hands, all of them looking quite good, yet none of them made her want to buy.
They were all alike, bland and dull.
.
What happened was very ordinary. On her way out for an excursion, she ran into highwaymen. They looked like the sort with no sense and no connections, probably just petty ruffians who had only recently taken to the hills.
Otherwise, wouldn't the locals know that Liu the Philanthropist, the owner of ten thousand mu of land, was the biggest bandit around?
Just then, a down-on-his-luck young man passed by. The only valuable thing he had on him was probably the sword at his side. While everyone else chose to keep their distance, he stepped forward and scared the men away.
The young man looked impoverished, but he stood tall and straight like a young poplar. He was thin but not weak, and his skin wasn't pale from lack of sunlight, but a healthy wheat color. His eyebrows were thick and black, just like the impression he made.
He cast a glance at her. When he saw her looking straight at him without flinching, a blush rose to his face. He looked away, nervously hiding the sword behind his back, and asked if she was all right.
Liu Qingshan suddenly found herself a little interested in this particular piece of rouge.
Theme: Be independent, self-reliant, and strong.
